Firewire 400 and 800 on MBP

[Luis Ortega]

I have a dv camcorder and an external firewire hard drive used for video captures.
On my Dell laptop with one firewire 400 port, I would daisychain the hard drive and the camcorder when capturing video. My video editor, Premiere Pro, would control the camcorder and capture to the external firewire drive fine.

Now I have bought a MBP that has 400 and an 800 firewire ports.
Can I daisychain the two firewire devices like I used to, or is it possible to put one firewire device in each port and capture video with FCP?

Would it be OK to plug the external drive into the firewire 800 port even if it isn't a firewire 800 drive? Would it be better to plug the camcorder into the firewire 800 port instead?

If I get a firewire 800 external drive will I see any performance increases in read write to the drive?

Thanks for any advice.

 

[scaredpoet]

First and foremost: yes, you will see significant performance boosts if you use a firewire 800 drive on the 800 port. I have a 1TB external RAID 0 that I use when "docked" at work, and it works quite well for video editing. Never had a problem.

As for your setup: Yes you can still daisychain. And yes, as long as the connectors are compatible, you can hook up your firewire hard drive to the firewire 800 port. The firewire 800 port is backward compatible, but keep in mind that ii uses a different connector than your 400 port, so you'll need to get the appropriate cable or an adapter.

 

[Luis Ortega]

Thanks a lot for the quick reply.
My current external is only 120 gb so getting a larger capacity is necessary anyway. I think I will get a firewire 800 model.
Would I get any performance benefit by daisychaining the 800 drive and the camcorder on the 800 port as opposed to putting the 800 drive on the 800 port and the camcorder on the 400 port?
Thanks for your advice.

 

[scaredpoet]

You wouldn't get any benefit from this. You're better off just hooking up the camcorder to the firewire 400. It's preferable to avoid daisychaining when you can anyway.

 

[iphoneuser]

I have a 1TB external RAID 0 that I use when "docked" at work, and it works quite well for video editing. Never had a problem.

Oh? This sounds like the exact setup I'm looking for. I didn't realize it was possible to do an external RAID 0 config, and for a laptop! Now I feel like a n00b. Care to share what hard drives and controller you're using, and maybe point me to a guide on how to set it up for maximum performance, if it isn't any trouble? I've never set up RAID 0 before, but have always wanted to from all the praise I hear (I also do lots of video editing , so I'm looking for as much performance as possible.) This may be the trigger I've been looking for to finally purchase a MBP.

 

[alangyssler]

Mixed FW daisy chaining

This is sort of along the same topic of discussing... I was wondering if it would be possible to connect my Lacie D2 via FW400, and daisy chain an iPod over FW800 using the Griffin Dock800 cable? Can I communicate between devices over different FW types?

Also, has anyone been able to connect from the computer to an multiple interface drive (in my case, USB2, FW400, FW800) via USB, and then daisy chain off the FW ports? In an effort to make use of the iBook's singel FW port, I'd like to connect iBook --> Lacie D2 (USB) --> iPod (FW800) & another external HD (FW400), making use of the multiple ports on the D2 case. Can this work?

Or maybe I should just break down and pick up a FW hub. Any recommendations?

 

[alangyssler]

Well, that was easy

So, I decided to experiment with my previously mentioned scenario of daisy chaining from my iBook to an external via FW400, then to my LaCie case via FW400, and then finally to my iPod via a FW800 to dock connector cable, and it works famously! Transfer speeds are not increased, from what I can tell, bu t it does charge, and sync properly, without requiring the use of another FW400 port on my laptop, which is wonderful! I'm thrilled - a cheap, easy, effective solution! All in all, I only spent about $7 for the cable and shipping.

The cable is the Dock 800 by Griffin.

Later, everyone!